Financial crisis and internationalisation strategies of Italian companies

Abstract

The article deals with “Financial crisis and strategies for internationalisation of Italian enterprises”, placing the theme in the economic, social and territorial framework discussed by the authors. Theoretical models (Melitz, 2003; Melitz and Ottaviano, 2008; Chaney, 2008; Bernard et al., 2011), emphasize in fact, how only the most productive enterprises can cover the sunk costs related to the activity on the foreign markets, having so much the possibility of internationalization. This is a very representative sample: the companies considered occupied, at 2010, 4.4 million employees, representing 85% of the total export value. Internationalization strategies during the early years of the crisis The internationalization strategies of Italian companies have changed during the first years of the crisis. On the contrary, about 7,000 companies (12.3 % of the sample) moved down, mostly from the “global” class to “two-way trader”. Global companies and multinationals located in southern Italy still show a probability of negative survival, but less accentuated (8.8 and 6.3 percentage points). At the same time, the dimensional question and the geographical position of enterprises in the Italian territory continue to constitute an important brake element for the internationalization process.

Keywords

internationalization; financial crisis; Italy; Productivity; European Union; Local authorities

JEL codes

L25; F14; F23